Seeking budding writers in Oregon
The employment outlook is looking up for cannabis aficionados.

The Oregonian, the main newspaper in Portland, is looking for a critic to review marijuana strains and other weed-related products. The job listing for the freelance position demands an “experienced cannabis consumer” with deep knowledge of the strains of marijuana available in the state. The role will also include writing about the state’s “robust cannabis culture and marketplace.”

Recreational marijuana use was legalized in Oregon July 1, so jobs related to pot are sure to increase in the coming months. But the cannabis writer at the Oregonian won’t be the first person to hold such a role at a major American newspaper. The Denver Post appointed a pot editor at the end of 2013 just before Colorado legalized marijuana in the state.

Jazmin Hupp thinks its long past time for women to lead an industry. The one she has in mind happens to be the fastest-growing in the county—the cannabis industry.

Hupp and her co-founder, Jane West, run Women Grow, a network for women in, or who want to be in, the marijuana industry. The opportunity is big. Marijuana is now legal, to varying degrees, in about half of states. Legal sales totaled about $2.7 billion last year, up from $1.5 billion the previous year, and are projected to reach 10.8 billion by 2019, according to the ArcView Group, an investment and research firm covering the industry. “We’ve had artificial barriers up to this point, and as those disappear, millions of dollars will flow in to the industry,” says Hupp.

Increasing awareness of the opportunities is part of Women Grow’s mission. While there are regulatory hurdles to starting some businesses, there are plenty of other routes into the industry that don’t involve cultivating or touching the plants: businesses that focus on marketing, legal advice, retailing, packaging and product design, among others.

Hupp says branding is crucial for these young companies. “As national brands begin to move into the space, small companies will need to have defined a very clear niche, and show results in it to compete,” she says.

Marin’s state senator proposes regulating medical marijuana industry

State Sen. Mike McGuire has introduced a sweeping bill that would legalize and regulate the medical marijuana industry from cultivation to consumption and all the steps in between.

The bill, SB 643, passed out of the state Senate’s Business and Professions Committee on April 20 and will receive a hearing in the Senate’s Governance and Finance Committee on Wednesday.

The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and subsequent state legislation exempted qualified medical patients and their caregivers from state criminal sanctions related to possession, cultivation and transportation of limited amounts of marijuana. Nevertheless, a lack of statewide regulation has resulted in uncertainty about the legality of some medical marijuana cultivation and distribution activities.

“I’ve done everything from pumping gas to remodeling houses, but I think there’s longevity in this,” 32-year-old bud trimmer Kurt Vermillion told The Columbian. “I think there’s lots of growing room in this industry. I want to do whatever they need me to do.”

Bud trimmers make between $12 and $15 an hour and use small scissors to trim away leaves and other things from marijuana buds. Most trimmers work on about a pound to a pound and a half of marijuana per day.

Experienced workers can move up to gardeners or concentrate makers and make $50,000 to $90,000 a year.

For 37-year-old Julie Whittaker, who started trimming buds in November, the job turned out to be less stressful than her former work in the banking software industry.

“I’ve been learning my way as I go,” she said. “I’m intrigued by this whole industry. It’s a big shift for me, and honestly I find it to be better regulated than even my old career in banking.”

Vermillion and Whittaker work at Cedar Creek Cannabis, where Mark Michaelson, head of operations, is eyeing ways to hold onto workers. The company has 14.

“We want to work on employee retention,” he said. “Eventually we’ll have health and dental insurance and full benefits for them, too.”

Clark County has eight growers that have been approved by the Liquor Control Board, and five stores have opened in Clark County so far and two more are planning to open within two months.

Before the legalization of marijuana, bud trimmers migrated from job to job and were paid in cash by the pound and risked arrest. Now, bud trimmers typically make an hourly wage, though some are paid by the pound.

“I think what happens is people think in this industry, people are just hanging out and maybe even smoking,” said 32-year-old Brittny Houghton, 32, whose family owns Cedar Creek Cannabis. “But that’s not what we do. It’s a real job, it’s 9 to 5, you have to be on time, you don’t have to be a smoker, and the quality of the work is important.”

At CannaMan Farms, another marijuana business, owner Brian Stroh said trimmers come from a variety of backgrounds.

“It’s a business that people who work hard can move up in,” he said.

Comments Off on Guy with massive brain injury is biking across Florida to raise awareness for medical pot

What do you get when you cross a normal, everyday dude with 12 screws and six metal plates?

No, this isn’t some cheesy joke with a punch line playing on the word “screws,” it’s a real story about a man and his pot. The not-so-funny answer is a metal skull.

Ken Locke cheated death in late 2001 after a tree fell on his head and caved in his skull. The 12 screws and 6 plates rebuilt his broken head. But the news wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Locke was left with frequent grand mal seizures. According to the Panama City News Herald Locke suffered more than 60 of the debilitating and frightening seizures.

Locke was on a cocktail of prescription drugs he said caused him to lose more than 50 pounds. So he ditched the pharmacy in his bathroom and took up smoking pot in 2006. That same year he trekked across country on his bike to raise awareness for the benefits of medical cannabis. This year, now that a medical marijuana ballot initiative failed in Florida, he’s doing it again. On January 3, Locke started a statewide bike tour with his wife and 12-year old son that will culminate on January 10 in Tallahassee.

The pro-pot bike tour will end with a Libertarian rally in the state’s capital.

Locke’s bike tour comes at an important time for proponents of medical marijuana in Florida. Last year, the state legislature passed a medical marijuana law that would allow the dissemination of a non-high inducing strain of marijuana. That strain would be low in Tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes users to get high, but high in Cannabidiol. That’s the part of pot thought to reduce seizures.

Since Locke started using medical marijuana, he says he hasn’t had any more seizures – more than he can say for the arsenal of pharmaceuticals he was taking.

Celebrities look to cash in on a growing industry while entrepreneurs hope famous names will help their products stand out in a crowd.

While the alcohol industry has long had celebrities like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Bethenny Frankel endorsing brands, we’re just starting to see marijuana brands endorsed by musicians, actors and, well . . . Bethenny Frankel again.

Entrepreneurs across the U.S. are flocking to the burgeoning cannabis industry as more and more states pass legislation legalizing the sale of marijuana in some form. That proliferation of pot-related businesses means that business-owners are scrambling for ways to make their brand stand out in the minds of consumers. Cue the celebrities, who have been popping up across the marijuana industry recently with product endorsements as well as their own pot-related brands.

When you think of celebrities and pot, a host of well-known weed advocates likely spring to mind. Music icon Willie Nelson is an outspoken supporter of marijuana legalization who often throws his support behind political candidates with similar views. Meanwhile, actress and co-host of The ViewWhoopi Goldberg penned a column last year that details her love of her vaporizer pen — a tool for inhaling weed and other herbs — and comedian Sarah Silverman even showed off her own “vape” pen on the red carpet before attending last year’s Emmy awards.

In other words, there seems to be no shortage of celebrities who would surprise no one by jumping into the legal pot business. Here’s a look at several famous names who are already looking to cash in on the “green rush”:

California has had the Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR) since 2000 conducting research on cannabis through various state Universities, such as UCLA and UCSF. These are different ways to fund research, one only allows researchers with ties to state universities to get funding, and the other offers funding to anyone, regardless of their affiliation.

For example, if you are doing independent research on cannabis, without being a member of a university, there is no way to get your study funded by California through the CMCR, but if you are in Colorado, you do have the chance to get funding. Offering grants is arguably a more fair method to determine what studies get funds, because it doesn’t give preference to those already privileged enough to be within the gilded walls of academia. In that sense, Colorado is a first, but to say they are the first state, or even the first government agency to fund cannabis research, is not accurate.

Center for Medical Cannabis Research: A History Lesson

It has been fifteen years since the CMCR was founded, and in that time they have authored at least fifteen studiesshowing the therapeutic, positive effects of cannabis. A whole generation has grown up using cannabis since Prop 215 was passed in 1996, whose passage prompted the California legislature to pass SB 847, creating the CMCR.

The CMCR’s stated purpose was to find the therapeutic benefits of cannabis. Igor Grant MD is the Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine and the current director of the CMCR. Dr. Grant had this to say about the research done by the CMCR, “[our] findings provide a strong, science-based context in which policy makers and the public can begin discussing the place of cannabis in medical care.”

Federal Research Embargo

What makes the CMCR unique is that, until their founding, there was no government funded agency with the express purpose of studying the benefits of cannabis. The National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has the final say on any cannabis research that is being federally funded or using the federal stash of cannabis grown at the University of Mississippi, and NIDA will only approve studies of the negative effects of cannabis use. Despite that, the Federal government has funded more cannabis research than perhaps any other person or group in the world, to the tune ofhundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade alone.

The Catch 22 of all those federally funded studies is that in order to get funding and access to NIDA grown cannabis, one’s hypothesis must be something negative about cannabis. If one wanted to do a study showing that cannabis prevented the damage of lung cancer, they could never get approval.

It is possible to conduct a study with a negative hypothesis and find positive outcomes, and NIDA cannot do anything about it. Dr. Donald tashkin from UCLA conducted “the largest case-control study ever done” on cannabis smoking and lung cancer. He found that it didn’t cause lung cancer, and actually lowered the rate of lung cancer to be less than the rate of non-smokers.

Dr. Sue Sisley, was recently fired from the University of Arizona for her research on cannabis. Dr. Sisley fought for years to get federal approval for her study on veterans with PTSD, and when she finally got access to NIDA grown cannabis, the university that approved the study fired her for it. She now plans to go into private practice to continue her research, perhaps with a grant from Colorado. NIDA’s chokehold over which studies get approved and which do not, creates a chilling effect on cannabis research, driving many would-be researchers to study other topics. The few that remain may get fired for their research topics, left to fend for themselves without funding or institutional support.

Despite the current quota being lower than what was proposed in 2007, and lower than the totals from 2002-04, it still represents a nearly 3,000% increase over 21kg. Of that 21kg that has been grown yearly since 2010, over half has gone to the four remaining participants in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program. Now, with that much higher quota, there should be much more cannabis to go to research. Hopefully this will include some CBD-rich strains, as well as the THC-rich cannabis they normally grow.

Cannabis boom in 2014: 2014 was a banner year for medical marijuana legislation and 2015 looks to be another year filled with legalization, decriminalization and the expansion of the medical marijuana business. In the state of Colorado $573 Million was spent on medical marijuana with $60 Million collected in taxes whereas in Washington $64 Million was spent on medical marijuana with $15 Million collected in taxes. Is there any wonder why the job economy has also raised in those states? $8 Million was given to marijuana and cannabis research, Alaska and Oregon passed legislation as well as Washington D.C.

Job Growth for Medical Marijuana Workers10,000+ new jobs were created last year with only half of the country having legalized or passing medical marijuana legislation. Considering that 3 new states passed legislation and 6 more states are in play in the coming year the potential for job growth has become exponential. With a total of 4 states out of the 23 legalized states having specific amendments to include recreational smoking and use of cannabis the markets for jobs and career growth has grown as well. The projections made about the industry include nearly $10 Billion in revenue for marijuana-legal states within the next three years and if more states are added to that list the growth in the economy could be even more substantial.

Investment Trading in the Coming Year With the release of the breaking story about Founders Fund investing in Privateer Holdings Inc. opens up a new era in the legitimacy of cannabis entrepreneurship. Larger more privatized firms will take the cue from Founders Fund to begin investing within other businesses in the cannabis industry. Ancillary services are growing every day in the industry and with the existing infrastructure for pot only being developed within the last couple years the time for job growth through investment capital has finally come. The states that stand to make the greatest benefit through medical marijuana jobs are those that didn’t have an infrastructure for manufacturing and growing of cannabis. States such as Alaska and Oregon’s amendments included recreational provisions thus making the demand for medical marijuana greater. Through legalization the economy expands to create new businesses, more jobs and careers, and more tax revenue as a result of sales.

Comments Off on Pot Tax Adds $40+ Million To Colorado’s Economy: Crime, Traffic Deaths And Unemployment Are Down

Back in 2012, critics claimed the world would come to an end if marijuana was legalized for recreational use in Colorado.

Douglas County Sheriff David Weaver said crime would be up and more kids would be lighting up,

“Expect more crime, more kids using marijuana and pot for sale everywhere.”

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper was worried for the kids and also concerned about the stigma free use of pot would have on the state. I suspect the governor watched Reefer Madness one too many times.

“Colorado is known for many great things –- marijuana should not be one of them.” Gov. Hickenlooper added, “Amendment 64 has the potential to increase the number of children using drugs and would detract from efforts to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation. It sends the wrong message to kids that drugs are OK.”

“Drugs and kids don’t mix. As an educator and as a parent, I am not comfortable supporting something that I know is harmful to children,” Baca-Oehlert said. “Marijuana has impacts, negative impacts, on attention span, brain development, all of these things that impact learning.”

Well, good news, folks. The kids are fine and the legalization of pot in Colorado has brought quite a few benefits along with it.

“The drop in teen use reflects the fact that state and local authorities have far more control over marijuana than ever before.” Tvert argues “our goal should not be increasing teens’ perception of risk surrounding marijuana. It should be increasing teens’ knowledge of the actual relative harms of marijuana, alcohol, and other substances so that they can make smart decisions.”

Crime has dropped as well. According to USA News, marijuana related arrests account for 50% of all drug related crime. These arrests have predictably plummeted in Colorado. HuffPo reports that the reduction in crime has saved the state between $12 million and $40 million in law enforcement costs. Another added benefit is that police are now free to focus on real criminal activity instead of chasing down recreational pot users.

As if that’s not enough good news, Colorado’s economy is booming. They added $40+ million in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana in the first ten months of 2014. The state of Colorado and the city of Denver have both been ranked in the top ten for job growth as well.

Other opponents of legalization claimed the roads would be filled with ‘drugged drivers’ turning Colorado highways into rivers of blood. Ok, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but nonetheless, the critics were wrong. The Washington Post reports that Colorado highway deaths have dropped to near historic lows since marijuana was legalized for recreational use.

Vice News reports yet another positive outcome. Marijuana legalization in the United States is starting to cripple Mexican drug cartels.

Good old Gov. Hickenlooper, once a critic, has finally seen the light. As reported by BuzzFeed, Hickenlooper is now celebrating Colorado’s booming economy, which has improved, in part, due to the legalization of marijuana,

“While the rest of the country’s economy is slowly picking back up, we’re thriving here in Colorado,” said Hickenlooper.

The Colorado experiment is going very well and we can expect other states to follow suit. Perhaps one day soon, all Americans will be able to “light ‘em if they’ve got ‘em” free and clear of criminal wrong-doing.

Comments Off on Could DC Marijuana Vote Allow Congress, President Obama to Legally Light Up?

With the way things move in the nation’s capital, maybe elected officials have already been smoking marijuana in pretty large quantities. A potential vote could make it legal.

Local officials in the District of Columbia have already taken a giant step in the direction of legalizing weed, voting Wednesday to advance legislation that would do away with jail time and reduce fines to a token $25 fine for marijuana possession.

The full district council will begin deliberation next week on the “Marijuana Possession Decriminalization Amendment Act of 2014,” which is expected to pass.

Support for legalizing marijuana has expanded dramatically in the nation’s capital, according to a Washington Post poll released Wednesday. Just four years ago, residents were evenly split. Now, the Post reported, residents favor decriminalization by about 2-1.

“We are moving towards a new day when it comes to marijuana regulation,” Council member David P. Grosso told the paper.

Murial Bowser, a council member and mayoral candidate who endorsed the plan, told the Post fully legal and taxable marijuana sales are inevitable.

“If it’s not a crime to possess it, where then are people buying it?,” Bowser said. “Dealing with how people can procure this decriminalized marijuana has to be the second step.”

That could come in November, activists for legalizing marijuana are seeking to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana by putting the question to voters.

One note to the president and Congress: Careful where you toke, even if DC legalizes pot. It would still be illegal on the Mall and other federal properties in the District, punishable by up to $1,000 and a year in jail.

With our recent spate of victories at the state level, currently 17 states and the District of Columbia (and several major cities) have stopped treating marijuana smokers like criminals; 23 states and the District of Columbia offer legal medical marijuana; and four states have fully legalized marijuana with state-licensed dispensaries. We have reached a tipping point in the decades-long drive to legalize marijuana, and with your continued support, there is no turning back! – norml.org

It seems every day now we are getting closer and closer to full legization of cannabis for the people of the united states!

Here a good video to enjoy 🙂

Comments Off on Competing Marijuana Legalization Bills Show Georgia is in Play

Competing Marijuana Legalization Bills Show Georgia is in Play

Ask anyone who has grown up or spent any time in Georgia and they will tell you that this state will likely be one of the last to legalize marijuana. In a state that’s home toover 10,000 churches and a very conservative base, Georgia will never, ever make marijuana available for its citizens in any form.

Wrong.

Representative Allen Peake Introduces CBD Bill

On Monday, November 17, State Representative Allen Peake (R-Macon) showed up to the Gold Dome early in order to pre-file his medical marijuana legislation. Known as the Haleigh’s Hope Act, the bill received the coveted “House Bill 1” designation, showing a serious commitment by politicians to make medical marijuana available in some form to sick Georgians.

HB 1 will make legal medical marijuana extracts that are high in cannabidiol (CBD) and low in Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) available for a select number of sick Georgians. HB1 is very similar to last year’s HB 885, which failed at the last minute due to political wrangling. The difference is this year’s bill will list conditions other than epilepsy, such as cancer and glaucoma, despite the fact that most scientific research points to THC as the active ingredient in cannabis that can do the most good for these additional conditions.

House Bill 1, also known as the Haleigh’s Hope Act, will be formally introduced during the 2015 legislative session and would provide for the regulated use of medical cannabis to treat certain medical conditions. The bill would only allow for the use of non-smoking medical cannabis, in the form of liquid, pill, or injection, and the bill explicitly states that the intent is not to legalize the use of cannabis for recreational purposes. Under HB 1, only certain, registered patients would have access to the treatment, and it would only be dispensed by licensed, registered entities within the state. HB 1 would provide for a safe, effective, timely, tightly regulated, and secure infrastructure with strict state oversight for medical cannabis, which would contain a very low amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Additionally, the bill would decriminalize the possession of medical cannabis oil in Georgia for those patients who legally obtained the medicine in another state. Lastly, the bill states that the General Assembly would create a strict regulatory system around the medicine’s production that satisfies the recommendations of the U.S. Justice Department.

Sen. Curt Thompson Introduces Two Marijuana Bills

Competing with Rep. Peake’s House bill is Senate Bill 7, also known as the Controlled Substances Therapeutic Relief Act, which would make it legal for physicians in Georgia to recommend up to two ounces of medical marijuana for patients suffering from covered conditions. And while HB 1 will only allow miniscule amounts of THC, SB 7 sets no such restrictions.

Covered conditions under Senate Bill 7

When pre-filled, Senate Bill 7 included the following qualifying conditions in order to obtain medical marijuana in Georgia:

“While I adamantly support cannabis oil treatments for children with severe medical problems, I believe physicians should have the ability to care for all of their patients, regardless of age,” Sen. Thompson said in a press release.

In addition to Senate Bill 7, Sen. Thompson has also pre-filed Senate Resolution 6, which would add a Colorado-style amendment to the Georgia Constitution that would legalize and tax marijuana for adult recreational use. Though the chance of SR 6 passing the Georgia Senate is probably akin to what we around here call “slim to none”, Sen. Thompson admits the resolution is being introduced to “start a discussion” on the possible economic impact if Georgia were to legalize recreational marijuana. And the impact could be huge indeed if you consider the experience of states like Colorado, where the State is poised to provide a $30 million TAX REFUND to taxpayers due to an excess in marijuana tax revenue.

Taking a stand for Georgia

No matter the outcome of what is sure to be an interesting legislative session in 2015, Peachtree NORML will be there to take a stand with Georgians who are sick and tired of the failed, TRILLION-DOLLAR waste of money known as the War on Drugs. We stand poised to make a real difference in people’s lives in the upcoming session and we need your support. Here are some ways you can get involved right now:

Become a member of Peachtree NORML
Our driving force is our core membership, which stretches from Tennessee to Florida. Peachtree NORML members meet regularly in order to organize, strategize and socialize. Join today!

Make a donation
Peachtree NORML is a volunteer-led organization that depends on the generosity of our supporters to promote the message of cannabis law reform in Georgia. We are also designated as a not-for-profit organization and have filed paperwork to obtain 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Donate here.

Volunteer your time
As an all-volunteer organization Peachtree NORML could not function without the thousands of hours per year donated by our members and supporters. If you have a skill or service you think could be of benefit to the cause please let us know. Contact us to volunteer today.

Share your anonymous marijuana testimonial
In order to make a change we have to show our lawmakers how cannabis prohibition negatively affects the lives of Georgians. We do this by showing themtestimonials submitted by Georgia medical marijuana patients and others who are criminalized and marginalized by the failed drug war. Send us your testimonial.

Become a Partner or Sponsor
Do you have cash or resources you or your business want to apply towards cannabis law reform in Georgia? Then you’re not alone. Check out our Partner’s page to see who else is supporting our cause.

Comments Off on Voters back legal marijuana in Oregon, Alaska, Washington, D.C.

Florida MMJ Measure in Trouble? CMon Florida Get Out and Vote Yes on 2

The anti-medical marijuana campaign in Florida appears to be taking its toll on legalization efforts.

The latest SurveyUSA poll in Florida on the state’s MMJ ballot measure found that just 51% of voters favor the initiative, with 33% opposed and 15% uncertain. That marks the fourth consecutive weekly decline in support levels in the SurveyUSA poll. A month ago, 56% of those surveyed said they would vote for the measure.

Polls conducted by other groups have found varying levels of support, including one from July in which nearly 90% of respondents backed the measure.

Many of these were taken before Drug Free Florida – the campaign against MMJ – really got rolling.

Come Nov. 4, Florida voters will decide whether or not to legalize medical usage of marijuana under Amendment 2. The amendment has sparked intense debate and fundraising.

Morgan & Morgan, a Orlando law firm, is the biggest contributor in favor of the amendment, with a $3.5 million contribution. On the other side, Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnet and a billionare, leads the campaign against the measure, contributing $4 million.

More than 7,000 donors gave $6.42 million to People United for Medical Marijuana, and 30 donors gave $4.73 million to Drug Free Florida. Select each filter or type in the name of city to view the list of contributors for both campaigns.